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Topic: Come for dinner, bring money. (Read 3522 times)

I think this is the first thread that I've started on the "new" message board! Hooray, me!

Dh went to lunch with some former business associates on Friday. One of the guys is single and likes to cook, so after everyone else had left he tried to invite dh and me for dinner some night. Guy said he was in the mood to experiment, and of course we could chip in for the grocery money. Of course, we will politely decline any such invitation if it ever actually happens. Too much!

Umm....If I want to experiment with a new dish, I always try it on myself first. If I think it is good enough for guests then I will invite them over for to try the meal at a later date. Expecting them to "chip in" for a meal and not even knowing if it is going to be good? Tacky, tacky, tacky!! You are right to decline this guy's invitation.

Sounds like he wants to experiment with some really expensive ingredients like foie gras or black truffles and is trying to get someone to subsidize the costs. That's fine if (a) you know him well, (b) he has invited you over enough times for no-strings-attached dinners that you are sure that he really is an excellent cook, and (c) the specifics are discussed ahead of time and the exotic ingredient is something that everyone involved wants to try. I'd be happy to go shares on a truffle, but foie gras is just chopped liver to me.

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I'd like to clarify that this person is not a close friend of ours, but rather a former co-worker of my husband's. I have met him a total of once, and we have never socialized with him. We did invite him to our annual chili feed in October, to which he RSVP'd in the affirmative and offered to bring cornbread. He even called that morning for directions, and then never showed up. I'm still not sure what happened there.

I do agree that if we were part of a group of intimate friends that shared a love of food, splitting the cost of something outrageous might not be untoward. No mention of the specific ingredient was made, and like I said, we barely know this guy. This is definitely not the same thing as a bunch of foodies choosing this month's special ingredient.

weber06

My husband experiments at tailgates all the time. We share with everyone. We make sure that we get enough to eat, but he loves to share his new creations and if I don't like it then I wander over to someone else's grill. We also shop for bargains as that much meat, chicken, and pork can get expensive. There is nothing DH likes better than cooking a really great piece of meat with a great rub of his own concoction and sharing it with his friends. We would never think of charging them.